Highlights of economic news from last week, include a survey of senior loan officers from U.S. and foreign banks doing business in the U.S. They indicated that banks were gradually easing lending standards for business and consumer loans, but viewed lending criteria...
Housing Analysis
RealtyTrac Report Shows Home Prices Increasing At Highest Rate Since 1977
U.S. housing markets continue to drive the economic recovery according to data released by RealtyTrac Inc. National home prices rose by 11.90 percent year-over-year for June. 48 states reported rising home prices with only Delaware and Mississippi reporting lower home...
What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – August 5, 2013
The past week brought encouraging economic news from several sources. The FOMC statement indicated that the Federal Reserve has not set a date for rolling back its quantitative easing program and ADP reported more private sector jobs added than expected. While weekly...
Case Shiller Home Price Index Shows Rising Prices For May 2013
The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index (HPI) released Tuesday presented solid evidence that the housing recovery continued during the month of May. The Case-Shiller 20-City Index showed increasing home prices for all 20 cities. Highest Year-Over-Year Gains Included...
What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week — July 29, 2013
Last week brought a mixed bag of economic news, but most notably, average mortgage rates fell. New home sales surpassed expectations and consumer sentiment rose for July; these readings among others suggest that the economy continued to improve and that consumer...
What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – July 22, 2013
Last week's economic news was a mixed bag with retail sales and housing starts coming in lower than expected, but home builder confidence in housing markets increased. Weekly jobless claims fell, and Fed Chair Ben Bernanke testified before the Senate, saying that...
Home Builder Confidence Rises To Highest Level Since January 2006
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) / Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) rose in July. Home builder confidence in the market for newly constructed single-family homes rose six points to a reading of 57. NAHB reports that this was the third consecutive...
What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – July 15, 2013
The Fed's release of the minutes for the June FOMC meeting was the most noteworthy economic event last week; the minutes repeated the Fed's recent statement concerning the wind-down of its current monetary easing policy. The minutes indicated that about half of...
What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – July 8, 2013
Last week saw a relatively quiet week due to the 4th of July holiday, but there were some housing-related developments: Monday: The Department of Commerce reported that overall construction spending increased by 0.50 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate...
What’s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week – July 1, 2013
The past week was active for economic news and mortgage rates. The aftermath of the Fed's indication that it may start dialing back its multi-billion dollar monthly purchases of Treasury and mortgage backed securities has sent mortgage rates to record highs. If you're...